News
Wake Up, NAFDAC!
In the recent past, the sales of counterfeit drugs in patent medicine shops across the country by those ubiquitous medicine dealers, have reached a frenetic and feverish pitch. Yet, the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was set up to halt the manufacture and sales of adulterated drugs in the nation’s cities, towns and villages.
Yes, it is an incontrovertible fact that the fight against fake drugs has over the years been a national question in the nation’s polity. Well, the effort of officials of NAFDAC to reduce to the barest minimum, the sales of counterfeit drugs, appears not to have yielded the desired result.
Sadly, Nigerians and indeed residents of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, may have been stunned to hear that over 90 per cent of the pharmaceutical and patent medicine stores in Port Harcourt sell fake drugs to members of the public. This is indeed, unfortunate, to say the least!
Mr Momodu Segiru, Director of the Port Harcourt Inspectorate Directorate of NAFDAC, said the discovery followed a mechanical test carried out last Monday on drugs in circulation in the Port Harcourt metropolis, and announced that the test was part of the agency’s nationwide sensitization campaign to ascertain the level of fake and substandard drugs in circulation with the aim of mopping up dangerous drugs and identifying their sources.
According to Mr Segiru, the exercise was also to demonstrate the use of the “true scan” equipment for on the spot testing of drugs, and noted that the machine (true scan) has indeed, brought some speed and accuracy in NAFDAC’s operations, as massive failure was recorded in Choba, Mile One and some other areas of Port Harcourt.
To the chagrin of NAFDAC officials, it was also discovered that all the drug stores tested in Rumuokwurusi and Woji areas of Port Harcourt, recorded failure in one drug or the other, an obvious indication that very limited wholesome drugs are in circulation in Port Harcourt and its suburbs.
Oddly enough, with the discovery that over 90 per cent of drugs sold in patent medicine shops in Port Harcourt are fake, it is certainly not an overstatement that the life of most residents are now in great danger, apparently caused by those ubiquitous patent medicine dealers. Indeed, it also rubbished the image of NAFDAC, as the agency charged with the responsibility of policing the manufacturers and wholesalers of fake drugs in the country.
The question now is: What were the officials of NAFDAC in Port Harcourt doing when the spate of fake drugs in circulation got to 90 per cent level? Undoubtedly, this is an indication that the agency’s personnel are not doing enough to nip in the bud the antics of adulterated drug dealers.
Again, if 90 per cent of the pharmaceutical and patent medicine shops in Port Harcourt sell counterfeit drugs to members of the public, then only heavens know the spate of fake drugs being sold in the 23 local government areas of the state. This is why NAFDAC officials must wake up from their stupor and move into the grassroots in order to halt the trend.
All said, not too long ago, NAFDAC shut over 200 patent medicine shops in Cross River State, as announced by the Deputy Coordinator of NAFDAC in the state, Abdulkarim Razaz. He said in his office in Calabar that the campaign against fake and adulterated drugs would continue as long as patent drug dealers did not discontinue in the nefarious trade of selling fake drugs.
While commending the effort of NAFDAC officials for shutting down over 200 patent medicine shops in the state, one is at a loss to understand why over 200 patent medicine stores were still operating in the state right under the nose of officials of NAFDAC serving in that state
Beyond that, the authorities of NAFDAC must spread their dragnets to all the nooks and crannies in the state in order to apprehend more patent medicine stores, still selling fake and counterfeit drugs. This, would in no mean way, reduce (drastically) the danger being faced by consumers of fake drugs in the state.
Obviously, Rivers and Cross River states are not the only states enveloped in the sale of fake and counterfeit drugs. Therefore, NAFDAC authorities must beef up their investigations into the existence of patent medicine shops, dealing on fake drugs in the country.
One’s position on this touchy issue is premised on confirmed reports that the nation’s cities, towns and villages are again facing the emergence of patent medicine shops, selling fake drugs, few months after the exist of the immediate past director-general of NAFDAC, Prof. Dora Akunyili.
That being so, one believes that the time has come for the authorities of the agency to set up a technical committee in every state of the federation, that would monitor (on regular basis) the sale of counterfeit drugs in the cities, towns and villages across the country.
Yes, NAFDAC’s desire to win the war on fake drugs, can only be achieved if the agency carries its investigations to the villages because, it has been confirmed that counterfeit drugs are sold with ease in the nation’s villages than cities and towns.
Friday Nwinudee
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